Saturday, June 16, 2007

They can still do it

Last night we saw the Subdudes at the Towne Crier in Pawling. Great show. About halfway through, four of the 'dudes left the stage and came out amongst the tables to do 2 acoustic and a capella songs. So much energy and happiness generated, and after that part even their electric playing went to a different level. And that tambourine-powered percussion is truly amazing.

I was thinking that some of my emphasis on looking at expertise in the moments of interruption/disruption kind of miss the point. There is also expertise in the maintenance of flow, keeping an effort the maximal state of creativity and productivity. I saw that (to a degree) in the Rutgers experiment earlier in the week, where both small groups accomplished their goals with little need for on-the-fly sensemaking. And watching the Subdudes play so gorgeously, reaching peaks of their kind of artistry, reminded me that beautiful recoveries are not the only, or even most interesting, form of artistry -- they're just a particular thing to focus on for research purposes. I'm not trying to enshrine them in some theoretical way and my writing shouldn't make it look that way.